Senses
1. but, rather, on the contrary — Adversative conjunction introducing a contrast, correction, or exception to a preceding statement. Covers the full range from mild contrast ('but') to strong adversative ('on the contrary, rather') and the emphatic 'but also' (ἀλλὰ καί). With 644 NT occurrences it is the primary Greek adversative particle. Multilingual evidence is uniform across all uses: Spanish 'sino/pero/ciertamente,' Hindi 'परन्तु/बलकि' (balki = rather), Arabic 'بَلْ' (strong correction), Korean '오히려/그러나/또한,' Swahili 'bali/lakini/hakika.' The single ἀλλὰ καί usage (S61828) is not a separate lexical sense but simply the conjunction in its emphatic combination. 644×
AR["بَل","بَلْ","لَٰكِنْ","لٰكِن"]·ben["কিন্তু","বরং"]·DE["sondern"]·EN["But-","but","but-"]·FR["mais"]·heb["אֲבָל","אֶלָּא","אֶלָּא-לַ-","כִּי-אִם"]·HI["परन्तु","बलकि"]·ID["melainkan","tetapi","tetapi-"]·IT["ma"]·jav["Nanging","nanging"]·KO["그러나","오히려"]·PT["mas"]·RU["но"]·ES["pero","sino"]·SW["bali","lakini"]·TR["ama","ancak","peki"]·urd["بلکہ","لیکن"]
BDB / Lexicon Reference
ἀλλά, conjunction, originally neuter plural of ἄλλος, otheruise: used adversatively to limit or oppose words, sentences, or clauses, stronger than δέ: __I in simple oppositions, but, __I.1 after negative clauses, οὐ κακός, ἀλλ᾽ ἀγαθόςRefs 8th c.BC+ __I.1.b after a simple negative, ἦ παραφρονεῖ; οὔκ, ἀλλ᾽ ὕπνος μ᾽ ἔχειRefs 5th c.BC+ __I.1.c frequently after οὐ μόνον, μὴ μόνον, with or without καί,…